A small miracle in the midst of the Napa fire’s destruction

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A goat rests near the charred remains of a home on Shady Oaks Drive destroyed by the Atlas Peak Fire in Napa, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

A goat rests near the charred remains of a home on Shady Oaks Drive destroyed by the Atlas Peak Fire in Napa, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Goats that survived the fire wait for their owners in a large fenced area on Shady Oaks Drive during the Atlas Peak Fire in Napa, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Desolation and destruction met Bay Area News Group photographer Jose Carlos Fajardo and reporter Erin Baldassari as they drove through the hellish landscape created by the Atlas Peak Fire in Napa on Monday.

Houses, once grand and envied, lay in smoldering ruins; wineries were destroyed or damaged; the area was blanketed in a monochromatic dismal gray. Mile after mile, an otherworldly landscape of ashes and loss.

Then, a sign of life. As the pair drove along Shady Oaks Drive in the Silverado Trail area of Napa, they saw a pen of goats romping and frolicking in their improbable safety, their pen untouched by fire that passed within feet of them.

And just a few feet away, a goat lay on the charred earth that once had been a lawn, her knees bent and her legs tucked beneath her. She sat, not moving, her gaze apparently fixed on the desolate scene before her.

“We were in awe,” Fajardo says. “We were so surprised that they had survived. There was so much destruction. How did this herd of goats not get taken?”

Fajardo took some photos. That is what he’s paid to do. Then he put away the cameras and tried to help.

He crept up slowly to the single goat, watching for signs of life. She continue to stay there, the burned remains of the house behind her. As Fajardo moved closer, she turned her head. She was alive.

Fajardo surmises the goat was in shock, perhaps exhausted by her flight from the fire. She would not stand, but Fajardo finally reached his arms around her middle section and lifted. She stood and reluctantly allowed herself to be moved into the pen. Her only injuries appeared to be singed hair on her rump, testament to how close the fire had come.

The goats inside, still sheltered by a tree, had food and water. The owners had apparently left the water tap on, but it had melted from the heat and the flow of water had stopped. Although Fajardo didn’t know if the goat belonged in the pen, it would give her respite until the particulars could be sorted out.

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Across the street, a horse lay dead in a corral, killed by the smoke or burned by the fire. Outside the goat pen, several goats lay dead, although they were unmarked by flames.

Fajardo and Baldassari did what they could for the goats, hoping it would be enough, and knowing that the owners would soon be allowed to return to their home, they turned once again to the grim job of reporting on the fires.

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